OpenCV [1]} is an open source computer vision and machine learning software library for computer vision applications that is cross-platform and free for use under the open-source Apache 2 License, allowing easy use for commercial applications. OpenCV was originally developed in the late 1990's by Gary Bradski as an Intel Research initiative to advance CPU-intensive applications. The first alpha version of OpenCV was released to the public at the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in 2000. Development and support was taken over by Willow Garage in the early 2000s, and Version 1.0 was released in 2006. A second major release in October 2009 included major changes to the C++ interface, and other improvements, with support GPU acceleration added in 2011.
In August 2012, support for OpenCV was taken over by a non-profit foundation OpenCV.org, which currently maintains a developer and user web site. Development is provided by an independent Russian team supported by commercial corporations, with Official releases approximately every six months.
The most recent version has more than 2500 optimized algorithms, including both classic and state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning algorithms with more than 47,000 active users and estimated downloads exceeding 18 million. The library is used extensively by companies, universities, research groups and governmental bodies.
